The Man from the Bitter Roots

Yell

Rippling Waves" on the cabinet organ, and other numbers rendered singly and ensemble by the Musical Snows, Mr. Dill in rea

ws the movements of a possible Live One in a moribund mining camp, and, in spite of his puttee

together with seven other contiguous claims, using the name of dummy locators which would give Sprudell control of one hundred and sixty acres by doing the assessment wor

s, and a better understanding of conditions. Between the stage-driver's sweeping denunciations of road-supervisors in general and long and picturesque castigations of the local road supervisor in parti

sure of it. The problem before him was one to sleep on, or rather, thinking with forebodings of the clammy sheets upstairs, to lie awake on

e six verses twice and for a third encore the entire family responded with "The Washington Post March" which enabled Mr. Snow, who had tottered down from his

ht; while Miss Vi and Miss Rosie Snow were buttoned into their stylish princess gowns, with large red bows sprouting back of each ear. In trut

the regular boarders were already tilted on the rear legs of their chairs with their heads resting comfortably on the particular

ithered cheeks" stuck, as he phrased it, in his craw. It set him thinking hard of Bruce Burt and the young fellow's deliberate sacrifice of his life for one old "Chink." Somehow he could not rid himself of blame that he had let him go

fore-but where? The sharp-faced, sharp-eyed Yellow-Leg was associated in the older

bins Nest Again,'" Ma Snow suggested in the sweet, ingra

avorite compositions, so Miss Rosie obligi

light fell upon a gaunt figure leaning against the entrance of the snow tunnel. The man was covered with frost and icicles where his breath had frozen on his cap and upturned collar, while it was obvious f

ow, recovering a little from h

have gone down but that he threw ou

Bill was on his knees outside in an instant, j

aims he was sent to survey? It was plain enough that Bruce Burt "now deceased" was very much alive, and he, Dill, had crossed three summits on a wild goose chase, since it was obvious he could not relocate a man's ground while he was actually

y, as though even his tongue were cold. "I played

're hungry," Unc

the heart and her heels went clickit

of his neck were visible when he turned his head, his cheeks were hol

mmented as he eyed him critically. "Don

smile crossed Br

the length of time a man can

n? You got to To

we made it over the ridge to an old tunnel . . . I killed a porcupine but

'Tain't a dish you'd call for in a restauraw, and I reckon procupine's

hauled him to the cabin, where's he's waiting no

by both, the dumb, instinctive struggle for life against the combination, Bruce said nothing; but in a do

clerk and post-master stood pleased and expec

vibrate. Making every allowance for delays and changed addresses he had calculated that by now he should have an answer

uce looked at

last scrap of his vitality. He moved to

hat first night of horror after his quarrel with Slim. It had kept him going, hanging on doggedly, when, as he since believed, he might have given up. It seemed to have needed the ghastly, unexp

n the still solitude of mountains, and out of the passing of painful panoramas had grown Bruce's desire to "make good." Now,

watch out foah yoah laig in this hole heah." She called over her shoulder: "Mistah Hinds, I want you sho

Hinds jump like the close explo

first butter he had seen in months, while before his plate on the white tablecloth at the "

spered conf

prize had been filched from Mr. Snow, one of wh

her pale eyes. He wanted to cry-he-Bruce Burt! He fought the inclination furiously. It was too ridiculous-weak, sentimental, to be so sensitive to kindness. But he was so

of fact, his bones ached like a tooth from three long, hard days in the mail-carrier's sledges, and also he recognized certain symptoms which told him that he was in for an attack of dyspepsia due to his enforced diet en route

f going to bed and asked for a lamp. As he said good-night curtly he noticed Uncle Bill eyeing him

rooster?" he asked himself cros

e, as Bruce sat down beside him. "He's a mining and civil en

r?" Bruce asked

his own mother, he'd sell out his grandmother, but in his profession there's none

eard yet fr

"As you might say, indirectly. I wa

her wallet and hande

said acidly. "It's wo

ihood of that after Bruc

n' down my withered cheeks," said Uncle Bill savagely, "I r

edit which belonged to an obscure old man, or the self-aggrandizement of a pompous braggart. To Bruce it was indicative of a man w

letter, I notice," Griswold comm

N

of strength and his daring as a boatman had somehow crossed the almost impassable spurs of mountain between Ore Ci

tartin' back to-mor

in Bruce's voice. "I've changed my mind. I'm going outs

if you has cause to lick that

fused to be passive, though it desperately needed sleep. It was active with plans for the future, with speculation concerning Sprudell, with the rebuilding of the air castles which had fallen with his failure to find mail. In the restless days of waiting for Toy to get well enough to leave alone

rbrush down the mountainside to lie forever in the noisy stream! And the unexpected fern-fringed pools darkened by overhanging boughs, under which darted shadows of the trout at play-why he had thought, if they had Big Squaw creek back in Iowa, or Nebraska, or Kansas, or any of those dog-gone flat countries where you could look further and see

unfamiliar with electricity. In the isolated districts where he had lived the simpler old-fashioned

f Squaw creek, a transmission wire across the river and a pump-house down below, he could wash the whole sand-bar into the river and all the sand-bars

ad said bluntl

n, carrying water to his countrymen placering in "Chiny" Gulch; after which he became one of a company who, with the industry of ants, built a trestle of green timber one hundred and fifty feet hi

om the ground, but the eventful days surcharged with thrills were the only ones in which he counted he lived. H

of the 60's, so he was eager to submit his plan to some one who knew about such things and he wished that he had had

s House and of the Snow family, who were not so musical when asleep. Accustomed to stillness, as he was, the chorus that echoed through the corridor had helped

inadequate explanation in view of the frigid temperature of the uncarpeted rooms. Bruce was still more mystified when he heard Dill hurdling a chair, and utterly so when his neighbor began dragging a wash-

beaver trying to add a heavy home-made bureau to the collection in the middle of the floor. Shivering in

r hop into b

e swung his arms in t

keep m

ruce shook h

the "Guggenheimers" whined plain

his floor," Bruce said with a grin, as he dipped his fin

ave been walking in my sleep. I always do when I sleep in a strange place, but I

ot surp

ling his purple toes around the other knee. "I wonder if you'd let

sociably, leading t

mbulist c

for walking into other people's rooms, and

was to be engaged before daylight in the humane and neighborly act of warming Wilbur Dill's back, but so it i

ng unusual in propounding his questions in Mr. Dil

from a two-hundred-feet head with a mini

s muffled voice

d the questio

aves before you're up. I'd like mightily to know a f

ing out on the stage? Figu

tone was cordial. "An

t head, with perhaps a trestle bridging the ca?on of Big Squaw creek. And Dill, wide awake enough now, asked practical, pertinent questions, which

e the pump-house at the extreme end of the bar, the best place to cross the river with the transmission wire, of the proximity of saw-timber

's only the river or an expensive wagon-road. A wagon-road through such country might cost you the price of your plant or more. And

ould be your rough estimate of the cost

ve of freight, and as you know the ra

five hundred, Bruce reminded himse

obli

. "One good turn deserves another,

the sociable proximity of a bed that sagged like a hammock, and tiptoed about the room while dressing, going downstairs to the office wash-basin whe

eing alive. Besides, since he was going outside, as he had told him, for an indefinite stay, he